Underneath the Underneath
by ParadigmShifter
Summary: Alternate 'Bell Test' scene. Kakashi sensei is always talking about 'Underneath the Underneath'... so what if Naruto actually used his head? Not a child prodigy, more like using common sense.


Disclaimer: I refuse to believe this is necessary, however it has to be done. Kishimoto Masashi and others own Naruto. I don't.

Title: Underneath the Underneath

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Rating: Pick One. Teen.

Thanks go to Trevelyan.

Note 1: The 'bell test' part of Naruto has always bothered me slightly. Kakashi goes on about 'underneath the underneath', but when Naruto actually uses his head, he gets annoyed. This is just an alternate scene that wouldn't leave me alone.

Note 2: First Naruto fic. Reviews are more than welcome.

Note 3: I'm assuming you have a familiarity with Naruto – things like names of characters, and possibly some (very) basic Japanese under your belt.

-

Uzumaki Naruto was sulking.

Although if you asked him, he might see if he could get away with trying to convince you that it was meditating. Whether he succeeded or not would depend greatly on the gullibility of the person he was talking to.

While this wasn't all that uncommon, the position he was sulking in may possibly have been the most original 'meditative' stance every invented; likely never used before, except if there were possibly some especially masochistic monks somewhere in Tibet.

He was suspended a good twenty feet above the ground, held up by a rope around his ankle. He had been there since falling for Kakashi-sensei's second noose trap. His arms were folded and expression tight as he fought the headache caused by all the blood to his head.

The only advantage of being up this high was the unparalleled view. He could see the logs that one or more of Team Seven would be tied to. That sight didn't really make him feel all that much better, given the nasty sinking feeling he had that he would be the only one tied to a log.

Kakashi-sensei leaving him hanging here had given Naruto time to think.

He might wear bright orange and he might be loud and confrontational… but he liked to think that he wasn't stupid. Of course, as far as some ninja were concerned, being loud and wearing orange was as good as wearing a neon sign saying 'Here I am, come kill me, I'm easy" which was pretty much the same thing as stupid.

The head on charge as soon as Kakashi had told them of the 'test' was hardly his finest strategy. Kakashi, unlike Mizuki those few days earlier, did not appear willing to freeze if he saw dozens of Kage Bunshin's appear. Although try as he might, Naruto had been utterly unable to summon as many as he had when defending Iruka-sensei from the traitorous leaf nin. Naruto added that as something to experiment with further when – or perhaps _if_ – he ever got out of this damned rope.

The sneak attack from the river had nearly worked, though. It was so frustrating! If he hadn't become distracted with showing Kakashi-sensei that he was wrong about his fighting abilities, Naruto admitted that he _might_ have managed to get a bell. Maybe if he had sent two Bunshin's to skirt round… one to distract him by grabbing him and another to quietly pilfer a bell.

Naruto would be the first to admit that even his Bunshin's weren't exactly _quiet_. Shadow clones had minds of their own. That was great in combat, but if they were based on an already overly loud ninja their ability to be quiet was going to be minimal.

Looking away from the logs, Naruto's attention was caught by the Konoha Cenotaph – although he didn't know it was that, yet.

"So… that's what it looks like behind the logs…?"

The two boxes placed on the stonework drew his attention. Shading his eyes from the sun, he strained to see the small objects.

"Lunch! Kakashi-sensei left lunch on there!" Calming himself down, Naruto folded his arms again and thought it over.

"Hm… Kakashi-sensei says 'look underneath the underneath'…" Naruto mused under his breath, "and he's busy dealing with Sasuke and Sakura-chan for the time being…"

He grinned and reached into his kunai pouch to cut himself down again.

-

Sasuke swore as he found himself buried up to his neck in the clay-rich soil, unable to move, "Kuso!"

He got even angrier as Kakashi-sensei walked away lazily with his book in one hand, all his attention focussed on it.

Sasuke had spent his young years in an environment where failure was not tolerated. He had then spent the years after the slaughter of his clan in an environment where no one said a word against him; top of the class at the academy meant he never got anything but praise from the academy sensei's, and being the last survivor of the highly respected Uchiha clan meant that no ninja or Konoha villager was going to give him anything but respect and understanding. He had traded on his family name for too long, and was not strong enough. His jounin-sensei treated him as if he was little more than an inconvenience… and while he was certainly more of a challenge than Uzumaki, there was no way – even with his knowledge of Katon jutsu – that he could compete with a jounin of Kakashi-sensei's calibre.

That knowledge did something that nothing had done for a very long time… it hurt his pride.

Uchiha Sasuke was not prepared to let his injured pride go un-avenged. Beating Kakashi was the first step to beating Itachi.

And that was all that mattered.

-

Naruto was moving toward the two bento boxes while they were still unguarded. The temptation was strong to sit down here and demolish both of them, leaving Sasuke and Sakura-chan without any lunch.

Instead, he picked up the two bento, tucking the chopsticks into his kunai pouch for safekeeping while he found Sakura-chan and… Sasuke. While he in no way felt like sharing with the arrogant Uchiha paragon, the three of them were a team. Kakashi-sensei seemed rather hot about teamwork.

Then it clicked.

"Teamwork…"

Naruto practically did a jog on the spot about figuring out the way to win. Then he looked at the sky.

The sun was high. Even if he managed to find his two team-mates before noon, there would not be enough time to find Kakashi-sensei and 'defeat' him. Although there was a little nagging voice in Naruto's head that said even together, the three of them would not be able to defeat their instructor if he really pulled out all the stops.

"I need to find Sakura-chan and Sasuke…"

The blonde ran off, completely forgetting the two bento still sitting on the Cenotaph.

Kakashi poked his head out from behind the large upright projection that bore the names of his dead friends. A smile curved his single visible eye. "Perhaps he is not as much of a fool as he pretends to be. He bears watching."

Then the alarm sounded, and he went to find his three students. Naruto would still likely be tied to the log; the boy may have worked it out just in time, but time would tell whether or not Sasuke and Sakura would follow his lead or whether they would continue to act purely as individuals.

-

Half an hour later, Naruto was quietly steaming as Kakashi loomed over the three of them. Sasuke and Sakura-chan sat on the ground either side of him, while he was tied to the centremost of the three logs. To say that he was less than impressed would have been putting it mildly.

"You three failed!" Kakashi roared at them, seeming far more frightening than he had any right to be. It was as if the world had shrunk so that he was the focus of their undivided attention.

He was still glowering at them as he calmed slightly, and he continued, "But… I'll give you another chance. Sasuke, Sakura; you may eat lunch. Naruto, for falling for the same trap twice in a row, you can't. You two," he looked at Sakura and Sasuke, "don't let Naruto eat."

"NANI?!" Naruto's anguished yell probably woke up half of the wildlife in the forest with its volume.

Before he could actually argue with the jounin, Kakashi had disappeared.

"So ka…" Naruto muttered darkly. '_I see how it is going to be. Another who will use what I am as an excuse…_'

His stomach growled loudly at just that second.

"Aa… Sasuke-teme, Sakura-chan… have you worked out what it is we did wrong yet?"

Sakura looked at him, "We didn't get the bells, Naruto. I would have thought that would have been obvious."

"Hn." Sasuke obviously did not feel the need to include more than basic input into this subject.

"Iie, iie; we did something worse than that, Sakura-chan… we went off on our own!"

"Dobe," Sasuke snapped, "there are two bells. There are three of us. One of us – probably you – is going to fail this test and be sent back to the academy. I touched a bell before lunch. I am confident that I can get one next time."

Sakura nodded agreement.

"Sasuke-teme, you just don't get it, do you? The genin in the years above us… why do we always see them working in threes?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Because they passed the test, dobe. I didn't think even you were this dense."

At this moment in time, Naruto wondered – yet again – what was so wonderful about the Uchiha. Sasuke didn't seem to have any more of a clue than he had had earlier; and the Uchiha was supposed to be the years' top rookie. "Ano sa, ano sa! But how are they in teams of three if they have a test where only two can pass?"

"…Naruto's… right," Sakura said nervously. "We're going about this the wrong way…"

"That's right!" Naruto yelled, "so can I have some food now? Please, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was just debating feeding Naruto when Sasuke got up. "Is that what this was about, Naruto? Concocting such an elaborate ruse just because you're hungry?"

At this moment, Kakashi, who had been leaning against a tree out of sight but still within earshot, began to contemplate how anyone could possibly be so pig-headed. He had been silently cheering Naruto on with his explanation, and he had the sinking suspicion that Sasuke had just managed to destroy whatever team spirit Naruto had been building with his little question and answer session.

Sasuke walked away from the log, leaving his half-eaten bento on the ground. He held a finger over his lips, giving his two team mates a glare.

Then he drew a kunai and flung it at Naruto.

"Argh!"

Naruto screamed, knowing that tied to the log he would never be able to dodge. He kept screaming until he fell on his rump for kicking his legs out.

The rope binding him was cut.

And there was a bento next to him.

Naruto grinned and dug in. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde.

Suddenly, the top of the log that Naruto had been bound to exploded into smoke. When it dispersed, Kakashi was perched there, looking like the wrath of God.

"You three…"

He ran through some hand-seals as thunder rolled ominously, lightning reflecting off his hitai-ate.

"You three…"

He straightened up.

"…Pass."

Naruto, who had been cowering away from being the focus of Kakashi's anger, and Sakura sat there in shock. Sasuke collapsed onto the dirt, the end of his terror-spawned adrenaline burst leaving him wrung out.

Ten seconds later, the three of them had passed out of the calm pool of shock and into a far more turbulent water.

"NANI?!" Naruto and Sakura shouted at the tops of their voices, leaping to their feet in amazement at the strange tactics their sensei used.

Sasuke remained still.

"Hn."

-

Reviews are appreciated; this didn't quite turn out how I intended it to, but then things rarely do…


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